Making History: Hundreds answer the call of duty

This month, the Guam National Guard will make history. More than 600 soldiers are expected to deploy to Afghanistan as part of the largest call-up in the island's history. Soon after the send-off ceremony on Feb. 22, the I-294th Infantry Regiment will travel to Camp Shelby in Mississippi for three months of training and then on to Afghanistan for nine months.

In Mississippi, the National Guard personnel will fall under the 29th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, a brigade of the Army National Guard of Hawaii, and support that team in Afghanistan, according to Guam National Guard Public Affairs Officer Kenneth Ola.

He said the National Guardsmen getting ready to deploy to the region would support Army forces in Operation Enduring Freedom.

Ola couldn't say to where exactly the National Guardsmen would be deployed.

He explained that once the federal government activates National Guard, they become, for all intents and purposes, active duty soldiers. That means that any Army missions or goals become those of the National Guardsmen who have been activated.

The alert order for the 294th Infantry Regiment and F Company, 29th Base Support Battalion originally came in April 2012. The large number of personnel needed for their specific mission and the number of National Guardsmen in the regiment on Guam resulted in this deployment being so much larger than many others, Ola said.

While he couldn't release the exact number of National Guardsmen being deployed, he could confirm that this is the largest deployment for the Guam Guard.

Combat focused

The last large-scale deployment from Guam happened in March 2012, according to Pika files.

That month, more than 130 National Guardsmen were deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

That deployment involved engineering missions throughout the southwest Asia region.

This regiment's mission is more combat-focused, Ola said.

He said the National Guardsmen would be tasked with providing security and support NATO training missions in Afghanistan "in order to increase security, ensure freedom of movement, neutralize insurgents, and help build Afghan National Security Force capacity."

Months of preparation

Last year's April alert order was the first step in making preparations to deploy National Guardsmen.

While it doesn't provide a number of guardsmen or date of deployment, it does allow the National Guard to begin making preparations and start the momentum for the deployment.

Even in April, the deployment was anticipated to be one of the largest in Guam Guard history, according to a Guam National Guard press release.

A month later, more-than-600 National Guard soldiers were sent to annual training in California.

That training allowed soldiers to get a glimpse of the potential environment they would see if they were deployed to Afghanistan. It also emphasized rifle marksmanship and crew-served weapons, such as vehicle-mounted guns.

Finally, in August 2012, the Guam National Guard received their mobilization orders.

That order would require the deployment of close to 600 soldiers to support the Army in Afghanistan.

Once in Afghanistan, Ola said the guardsmen would fall under the 29th Infantry Brigade Combat Team.

Deployment

Ola said the National Guard doesn't keep demographic statistics about the battalion or company he said, although he did say that "practically everyone" being deployed is from Guam.

Recently, concerns have been raised regarding the impact that the deployment will have on staffing at local government agencies. According to the Guard, 15 percent of the deploying soldiers --about 90-- are employees of the government of Guam.

Of that 90, the National Guard has noted that 40 people are members of law enforcement and public safety agencies, making it the largest sector affected by the deployment.

Department of Education administrators have confirmed that 18 of the school district's employees are National Guardsmen, some of whom are teachers.

Education administrators, however, have said that, with substitute teachers, the deployment won't drastically affect classrooms in Guam's public schools.